Ned
Ned, also known as "the pie maker," is a man with the unique magical ability to bring dead people back to life. He uses this ability to solve criminal cases by bringing victims temporarily to life and learning from them the circumstances of their death, a financial arrangement with Emerson Cod that has allowed him to finance his pie restaurant, The Pie Hole. The ability allowed Ned to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Chuck, who he resurrected after discovering she was murdered. Both have strong feelings for each other, but Ned is unable to touch Chuck again, or she will die forever. Biography Childhood Ned grew up with his mother and father in a bright and colorful home in Couer d'Couers, next door to Chuck and her father. Ned harbored a childhood crush on Chuck and the two regularly played together. Chuck also enjoyed spending time in Couer d'Couers' yellow sunflower fields with his dog, Digby, which is where he first discovered his magical touch.Pie-lette When Ned was nine years, 27 weeks, six days and three minutes old, according to the Narrator, Digby ran into the street and was struck by a 16-wheeler truck, which killed him instantly. Speechless and horrified, Ned touched his deceased dog just under his left eye and, to his surprise, Digby was brought back to life. This was the first time Ned had resurrected a living creature, and was the first moment he discovered that he had the ability to bring the dead back to life.Pie-lette Later that day, when Ned's mother was baking a pie and helping Ned get cleaned for dinner when a blood vessel in her brain burst, killing her instantly. Shocked, Ned touched his mother once under her left eye and she was brought back to life. She had been completely unaware of what happened to hear and assumed she had slipped. Moments later, Ned and his mother saw Chuck's father fall dead while watering his lawn next door. This was the first time Ned realized if he kept someone alive for longer than one minute, another life had to be taken. While tucking Ned into bed that evening, Ned's mother kissed her son once upon the forehead, and she died a second time. Ned tried to touch her again but she remained dead. This was the first time he realized that touching a resurrected person a second time would kill them forever. Ned avoided social attachments after his mother's death, fearing what he would do if someone else that he loved died.Pie-lette Nevertheless, during the funerals of their respective parents, Chuck and Ned, who were "dizzy with grief, curiosity and hormones" according to the Narrator, exchanged a kiss, the first for both of them. Shortly afterward, Ned's father dropped Ned off at the Longburrow School for Boys in North Brush, where Ned learned more about his power and how to control it. Ned would not return to Couer d'Couers for 19 years.Pie-lette Business arrangement Ned developed a love of pies from his mother and, as an adult, opened the Pie Hole, a restaurant specializing in pies. He lives in an apartment above the restaurant next-door to his employee, Olive Snook. Ned and Snook both bake the pies but Snook is unaware of Ned's magical touch, and thus does not realize the fruit in their pies are so ripe with flavor because Ned touches dead fruits and brings them back to life.Pie-lette The Pie Hole began to fall into financial ruin, but was saved by an arrangement Ned entered into with private investigator Emerson Cod. One day, while Cod was chasing a fleeing criminal along the rooftops of several buildings, the man slipped and fell to his death, landing on a dumpster outside of The Pie Hole, where Ned was emptying his garbage. The criminal's hand grazed Ned's face as he landed and he was brought to life. Cod witnessed this and watched as Ned touched the criminal a second time, killing him again. Cod proposed a partnership in which he would find unsolved murders offering rewards for information, and then Ned would bring the victim back to life. They would learn the circumstances of their death and solve the crime, thus collecting the reward and splitting it between the two.Pie-lette Reunion with Chuck Emerson Cod brought to Ned's attention a $50,000 reward being offered for a drowned woman, who Ned quickly learned was Charlotte "Chuck" Charles. Ned had not seen or heard from Chuck since their kiss 19 years ago, but his romantic feelings for her remained. Ned resurrected Chuck at the Couer d'Couers Funeral Home, but could not bring himself to send her back to death; her life was inadvertently exchanged for Lawrence Schatz, the grave robbing funeral home director. Although Chuck would later admit to Cod that he had given though to bringing her back for good, he said he didn't realize he would do it until the moment occurred.Pie-lette Chuck helped Cod and Ned find her killer and split the reward between them. They soon tracked the very valuable plaster monkeys, which Chuck was killed over, to the home of her Aunts Lily and Vivian, where the Shiny Shoes Killer attacked Ned. Aunt Lily shot the killer to death and the monkeys were given to Chuck and Ned. They soon discovered that the monkeys were actually made of solid gold, and split the wealth from them with Emerson Cod.Pie-lette Chuck not only starts working with Ned and Emerson Cod in solving their mysteries, but she also brings a new, friendlier element to the relationship. When Ned resurrected Matthew Miltenberger, the first victim Chuck accompanies them to help, she asks whether he has any final words or requests, something that Ned admits he had never considered in the past.Pie-lette Personality and traits Ned is a kind-hearted and mild-mannered man who maintains a calm and mellow demeanor even when confronted with extraordinary situations, in large part from frequent encounters with death and resurrection. Due to his part in the death of his mother and Chuck's father as a child, Ned generally tries to avoid social attachments, as demonstrated by the discomfort he expresses from Olive Snook's sexual advances. Ned also has what the Narrator describes as "an obsession" with pies, which he inherited from his mother. Pie-lette As a result of all the death he has encountered, Ned has a high threshold for gore and experiences none of the awkwardness most experience around death. Ned is respectful for the dead and those he brings back to life, as demonstrated by his insistence to Emerson Cod that they be called "alive again" rather than zombies, undead or the living dead.Pie-lette Ned's touch Ned is able to bring the dead back to life with a single touch, an ability he first discovered at age nine when he resurrected his dog, Digby. Ned has no idea how or why he was given this ability, which the Narrator described as "a gift" that was given by no one in particular. The dead that Ned brings back to life are only permitted to be alive for one minute before another life must be taken in exchange. The life exchanged for another is taken from a random living creature that is in the general proximity at the time.Pie-lette Any wounds or injuries inflicted upon a person in life are not healed by the Ned's touch, but the "alive again" do not seem to feel any new pain from those injuries; when Leo Gaswint was brought back to life, he did not seem to be suffered from the horrible injury on his face, which was inflicted by the Rottweiler who mauled him to death. The effects of Ned's touch, however, are apparently different regarding non-humans and non-animals; while they remain in the physical form they had in death, a strawberry that Ned touched while preparing to make a pie blossoms into the plump, ripe form it had in life.Pie-lette Ned's touch not only works on dismembered corpses, but each of the parts from that body are able to operate independently from each other once resurrected. Ned first discovered this when he brought back to life a criminal who was accidentally decapitated by a falling fire escape ladder while fleeing Emerson Cod; the head was still able to speak, and the headless body was able to move and attacked Ned and Cod.Pushing Daisies: The Comic Book Alternative forms of affection with Chuck Although Chuck and Ned are unable to touch, the two have developed several alternative ways to demonstrate their affection toward each other. While Ned is unable to hug Chuck, he once had Emerson Cod hug her and said it was from him. During one night in which they slept in different rooms, the two both touched the same spot on their respective walls, as a way of holding hands. They have also held their own hands together behind their backs, pretending to be holding each other's hands.Pie-lette Characters resurrected by Ned's touch * Digby Pie-lette * Ned's mother Pie-lette * Unnamed criminal who fell from roof after being chased by Emerson Cod Pie-lette * Unnamed criminal who was accidentally decapitated by a fire escape ladder Pushing Daisies: The Comic Book * Leo Gaswint Pie-lette * Charlotte "Chuck" Charles Pie-lette * Deedee Duffield Pie-lette * Matthew Miltenberger Pie-lette * Bernard Slaybeck Dummy * Rick Page Dummy * Beth Dummy * Lawrence Schatz The Fun in Funeral * Louis Schatz The Fun in Funeral * 30s Woman The Fun in Funeral * Elderly Man The Fun in Funeral Characters dead from Ned keeping someone else alive * A squirrel (for Digby) Pie-lette * Chuck's father (for Ned's mother) Pie-lette * Lawrence Schatz (for Charlotte "Chuck" Charles) Pie-lette Behind the scenes Ned is played by Lee Pace. The nine-year-old Ned is played by Field Cate. Sources Ned